The invention is referring to the field of the art of the fire-fighting vehicles, the rescue vehicles and the ambulances, proposing specifically the construction of a vehicle which, with the properly disposed equipment and ergonomy, can combine and accomplish all three missions, that is fire fighting, freeing and rescuing injured entrapped persons and subsequently transporting those persons, which have become injured mainly as a consequence of a car accident. According to a preferred embodiment, the proposed vehicle replaces at least three conventionally independent vehicles, i.e. one fire fighting, one rescue vehicle with equipment suitable for freeing entrapped persons and two ambulances, having an illustratively proposed crew of only three persons.
The vehicle proposed in the present invention has not been disclosed in the prior art. The vehicles which are being used today for the accomplishment of the above-mentioned operations (fire fighting, freeing-rescuing and transporting injured persons) are independent vehicles that usually are under the command of different services; the result is that, often, the accomplishment of their mission is not possible, as by way of example is the case with car accidents, which is a de facto complicated mission.
It would have been possible to significantly reduce the immense material losses and most importantly losses of human lives involved in car accidents, if there weren""t objective difficulties of the organisations that undertake the mission of dealing with the accident after it has occurred, such difficulties being centered at the lack of specialised units located at crucial points of national and regional road networks, such units being equipped with sufficient and proper human resources and equipment, so as to accomplish the scope of an ambulance equipped with proper rescuing and fire fighting means.
The composition of such properly organised units, although it would contribute decisively to the reduction of casualties, is not possible until today, because of the excessively high cost, since for every such station is needed an oversupply of special vehicles and a big number of employees. The difficulties arising as a result of the current situation are daily and they consist in the loss of valuable time, which is by way of example due to the delayed arrival of an ambulance which in any case has the limited capability of transporting only two injured persons, whilst in a car accident, two persons is usually the minimum of the involved injured, or due to the delayed arrival of a vehicle with rescuing equipment, having as crew firemen of general duties and insufficient training for the rescuing of entrapped people. Furthermore, such vehicles of the prior art are usually equipped with improper equipment and thereby are incapable of handling complex situations arising from the broadly varying conditions encountered in road accidents.
There is a broad patent literature referring to vehicles adapted to be used in either one of the operations of fire-fighting, rescue or salvation and first aid or ambulance. By way of example EP 0 417 615 of Binz GmbH and Co describes an ambulance which is equipped so as to be enabled to provide enhanced medical care to transported patients, but is restricted to the mere function of an ambulance. On the other hand EP 0 308 136 of Cleveland County Council refers to emergency vehicles such as those operated by fire brigades, which can carry alternative equipment so as to cope adequately with different eventualities, but which is not however capable of transporting patients or injured.
In the same way GB 2 159 777 of Rosenbauer Konrad K G, U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,372 of Glatzmeier Alfred et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,827 of Mcloughlin John, DE-38 02 187 of Rosenbauer Int. GmbH and DE-U-86 04 097 of CST MBH disclose various alternative improvements in fire fighting vehicles, without however including the possibility of these vehicles acting as rescue and/or ambulance vehicles.
Finally ES 2 114 776 or CH 481 651 disclose rescue vehicles, which are however incapable of transporting patients.
It is obvious that none of the vehicles disclosed in the hereinabove cited patent literature can be adapted to be used in effectively handling of a car accident, wherein it is often required to perform the combination of three functions, i.e. of fire-fighting, freeing entrapped persons and finally having the capacity of transporting a plurality of injured persons.
It thereby is the object of the present invention to effectively overcome the disadvantages and deficiencies of the prior art, by proposing the design and construction of a single vehicle which will be capable of covering the overall needs of an incident, since it will combine the possibilities of a fire fighting vehicle with special rescuing equipment including equipment for freeing entrapped persons and further including a sufficient number of positions for the transportation of the injured persons, for instance, having a capacity equivalent to two ambulances, thereby the proposed vehicle being capable of effectively coping with a road accident involving the occurrence of fire, entrapped persons and plurality of injured persons to provide with first aid and transport to hospital.
The invention offers, amongst others, the following: important advantages:
A. Expertise, since personnel of only three persons who are employed in accomplishment of the particular special object of the invention, will in time obtain valuable experience in the usage of the proper instruments, so as to find and use in each particular case the advisable and secure means of intervention, taking into consideration that no incident is identical with another.
B. The financial burden is substantially reduced because of the usage of only one vehicle and a diminished number of employees for every incident.
C. The vehicle can be used also for other kinds of incidents, such as air accidents, natural calamities, etc.
D. The problem of the co-ordination of a minimum number of two independent authorities which are conventionally involved in dealing with the accident, thereby resulting to elimination of the delays which may have tragic consequences. In this way the additional effect of minimization of the required administrative cost is also noticeable.
E. The invention, recapitulating the above-mentioned advantages, eliminates all the current technical-economic difficulties in advantage of the society and the economy.